The present invention relates to an improved knife sharpener clamp construction.
By way of background, sharpeners of the type shown in U.S. Pat. Nos 3,819,170 and 4,320,892 are known. In sharpeners of this type, a knife blade is clamped between two clamp members and a sharpening stone is guided along the edge of a blade by a rod member secured to a sharpener stone holder and guided through an aperture in an upstanding guide member. However, the prior art sharpener clamp of U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,892 was deficient in a plurality of respects. Firstly, it included two clamp members each having separate upstanding guide members secured thereto by screws. This construction was expensive because the clamp and guide portions consisted of six separate parts which had to be assembled, and in use the parts sometimes tended to loosen and shift, thus interfering with the sharpening operation. Secondly, the upstanding guide members were relatively flimsy and therefore could not be grasped without bending when the clamp was being held during a knife sharpening operation. It is with overcoming the foregoing deficiencies of prior art types of devices that the present invention is concerned.